


I don't know about you

by peccadilloes



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Bisexual Steve Harrington, Bittersweet, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, Tenderness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 15:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19793620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peccadilloes/pseuds/peccadilloes
Summary: He did love her. Steve had to admit to himself that, until Dustin, he hadn't really had any friends. Real friends. Robin gave him depth. He smiled so much he could imagine getting crow's feet around his eyes. Could imagine a future for himself, with her in it.





	I don't know about you

Steve stuck around in the fall. He didn't have the money to move, and anyway, what would Dustin do without him. One time on his day off, he dropped Robin off at the high school and then at the end of the day picked her up. They just drove around for a while, listening to music before he took her home. She asked him to do it again next week, and it became their routine. She told him other girls in the senior class remembered him -- "Of course they remember me. How could they forget the hair?" -- and were jealous that he'd picked her. "Jealous _and_ confused." She gave him a punch in the arm. "Dating a guy who graduated last year, what has Robin become?" They parroted, in Muppet voices.

It helped, Robin confided the forth time she hopped in his car after school. "Nobody suspects anything."

He did love her. Steve had to admit to himself that, until Dustin, he hadn't really had any friends. Real friends. Robin gave him depth. He smiled so much he could imagine getting crow's feet around his eyes. Could imagine a future for himself, with her in it.

*

That winter it snowed so much, the plows made mountains in the parking lots. They lifted baking trays from their moms' kitchens and rode down the piles after dark, in the moonlight. They took Dustin and the rest of the kids the next night, and it was fun but it wasn't the same sweetness of just the two of them.

They talked about it. Often. When Steve drove Robin to school and they were both still puffy-eyed from sleep. Sometimes she still had a pillow mark on her face.

"I don't know how to describe it," she said most times while looking out the window. Her fingers picking at the dash. "It's like I want you near me -- I want you with me all the time, but I don't want your dick."

They always laughed here.

"You want my hair."

"Every day."

"You'll find a girl," Steve told her as much as he could. "You'll know what it feels like."

*

Robin left for college in Chicago at the end of that next summer. She'd gotten scholarships to study Russian. "I'm going to join the CIA," she joked over the phone. She called Steve a lot at first.

He'd enrolled in a night class at the community college. Dustin and the rest of the kids convinced him he was good with them, would make a great teacher. "I said what would I teach and they said 'anything.' It'll take a long time, but--"

She stopped insisting he save up his money and move to Chicago after he told her. Called less. Sent him a picture in the mail of her and her new girlfriend around Christmas. And he called her up and they talked about everything that was wonderful about loving women. There was someone in his class, Steve confided, nothing like Nancy but who just might be thinking the same thing about Steve.

Then there was all the drama, the fights, the dishonesty the cruel worlds, the break up. Robin described it all through sobs on the phone.

Steve took two days off of work, put his textbook in the car, went to her. They rode the train around the city. Walked, ate French fries. She cried in his arms, got snot on his shoulder. He kissed the top of her head and pet her hair. She snuck him into her dorm room and slept curled up around him. They went to a diner and had eggs for breakfast. Spent the day by the lake, got deep dish pizza for lunch.

"You'll find someone else," Steve told her. "Plenty of fish in the sea. This isn't pizza, by the way. This is lasagna, basically."

"I'll eat yours then." Robin grabbed for his plate.

Steve held on to it. "You will not!"

She went after his slice with her fork, and he smacked her hand away. Robin wiped her eyes, laughing.

"I missed you," she said.

"I missed you, too."

"So how's that girl in your class? Go on any dates yet?"

Steve looked up, blew air at his bangs. "Brian? Yeah, I picked him up and we drove around Hawkins. I showed him all the places I battled the Mind Flayer and got chased by creepy military dudes. We made out a little -- okay, a lot -- but you know, people who haven't been through it don't really get it."

Robin was quiet, silent. Had stopped chewing mid-bite.

Steve held back a deep, despairing sigh. "You OD over there?"

"Just thinking," Robin said. She took a long drag on her pop. "I know what you mean," she said, finally. "She didn't get it either. I didn't even want to explain it at first, but it just--"

"Haunts you."

"Yeah, kinda," Robin said.

They burst out laughing.

"You're leaving early tomorrow, right? Anything you wanna do before you leave?"

"Doesn't matter. Long as I get to be with you."

"Let's get some nerd stuff you can bring back with you. Cheap souvenirs--"

Steve reached for the check.

Robin snatched it from him. "Nah uh," she said. "I've got this."


End file.
